A group of Chinese researchers can turn the future of flexible batteries

When industry is called upon to design batteries for special applications such as implantable medical devices or wearable devices, there are no features to choose from. Especially for the first type of use they must be flexible and free of dangerous chemical elements when in contact with the body.

The hitherto more flexible attempts have proved to be too rigid and heavy, but thanks to the efforts of a Chinese research team there is a new hope to cling to. Instead of using toxic and corrosive electrolytes, a battery of substances such as sodium sulphate, saline solution, and another usually used for cell culture have been tested.

Although it is desirable that these do not come into contact with the body, the false hypothesis in which this would occur would be far less dangerous than the case of chemicals contained in “traditional” batteries. This has allowed to reduce the amount of shields against fluid leakage, favoring its flexibility without increasing its weight.

The team has come to the notice of a possible alternative use of their discoveries. “We could implant the human body of fiber-shaped electrodes whose guaranteed deoxygenation could even lead to the death of cancerous cells. Of course at the moment it’s just an idea that we want to go deep with biologists and scientists, “one of the researchers said.